happy Christ-mas (you just punched Jesus in the face!!!)

"o holy night, the stars are brightly shining..."

every year begins and ends with christmas (does that last week of the year really even count?). it's funny, you know, how you grow up and get older and move away, and then back, and then away again and the gift giving(receiving) is a little less important than in nineteen-ninety-seven when you got that canon rebel and walked across the street and stood in the hay pasture where (and took a photo of the mansion), nine years later, you'd photograph john reuben. that was a long time ago, you know? but it sure doesn't seem like it.

"behold your king! before him, lowly bend..."

to-morrow is christmas. to-morrow is christmas! to-morrow is christmas!!! ohmygoshiwonderwhatigot!?! i really hope it's a sega. i love sega. i love sega! i love sega!!! i think it's a sega; i really really do! we went to the video store to rent a movie and i saw that there were sega games rented out on our account (i was so smart to look at the computer screen!). i can't believe i'm gonna have a sega! a sega!!! but to-morrow is sunday and how can christmas be fun when it's on a sunday? - we'll have to go to church and i won't get to play the sega. i really hope it's a sega. i'm gonna play it allllll day long.

"fall on your knees, o hear the angel voices..."

we can't go that way. if we take that road home, it won't be christmas! we always go the other way. and then we stop at turkey hill and get coffee. remember? we've done it that way since ninety-nine. please turn around and go the other way. i'd really appreciate it. then we'll get coffee and it will be christmas. it will be christmas. then we'll take the tree outta the truck bed and put the colored lights on it and all will be right in the world. orphans will sing and widows will shout in praise of our commitment to our christmas tradition. you know they won't like it if we do it any other way. i promise.


"christ is the lord! o praise his name forever...!"

last night you found it hard acquainting yourself with sleep; even to the soothing sounds of sigur ros. two a.m., already?! i wish i could breathe. why's my nose all stuffed up? i'm not even sick. it's dark and warm down here and christmas number twenty-eight (twenty-nine if you count my time in the womb) is just a few hours away. actually, it's already here, that text message at one a.m. proved it. and why does everyone send out texts on christmas? (and easter and the fourth and thanksgiving and flag day and and and...) that costs me fifteen cents, you know? well, not until i go over two-hundred for the month, but i'm getting close. i can breathe again. there's light streaming in from the basement and i smell coffee. it's morning. it's christmas morning and it's not like nineteen-ninety-seven anymore. that coffee's being made for me.

not the other way around.